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Vanity sizing:how often do the sizes GROW?


Garlic

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I was in Asda(UK Walmart) a few minutes ago and I spotted a rack of ladies trousers on the end of an aisle which caused me to stop and double check. They looked pretty big for a size 8. I mean really surprisingly large around the waste and hips. And I've seen this in a few places recently. Obviously, every shop has their own sizing scheme and the numbers don't really mean anything. But I just wondered who is keeping track of the sizes? How often do the shops change the sizes? How often does it happen?

I've also noticed that as more people are getting larger, people are having a greater tolerance as to what constitutes "fat" or "very fat". How much does vanity sizing has contributed to that increasingly skewed thinking?

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Reading this gave me an idea, how about using the internet way back machine to see how women's size guides have changed over the last few years,

I couldn't get any old measurements from the Asda/George website, I tried it with the clothing site ASOS, look at how the sizes changed, from Jan 2013 to Jan 2015:

2013:

imageserver.php?id=421083;image

2015:

imageserver.php?id=421085;image

All the sizes have basically moved up a notch!

In 2013, a girl with around a 26" waist size would have been buying clothes in a size 10,

now if the same girl went shopping the size 10 on the shelf would be at least 2 inches bigger!

So yeah, that's only over two years for christ sake!

If this girl claimed she was a size 10 in 2013 and was still a size 10 in 2015, she actually has gained around 2 inches around her waist ;D

Here is how the ASOS Curve Plus size range has changed over 2 years:

2013:

imageserver.php?id=421087;image

2015:

imageserver.php?id=421089;image

These measurements have pretty much stayed the same, other than the fact they are expanding their range (Pun intended ;D )

So in answer to your question, I'm sure vanity sizing is skewing people's perception of what is "fat" and what's "normal",

I can see in the year 2017 the ladies buying/wearing a size "10" dress being even bigger than the size "10" girls of today :)

post-1736-14513545550066_thumb.jpg

post-1736-1451354555091_thumb.jpg

post-1736-14513545551188_thumb.jpg

post-1736-14513545551492_thumb.jpg

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Thanks for all your awesome research!

I like vanity sizing- it gets women's mind off not fitting into a particular size. Maybe we should kick up the measurements a bit more. And again :D

Reading this gave me an idea, how about using the internet way back machine to see how women's size guides have changed over the last few years,

I couldn't get any old measurements from the Asda/George website, I tried it with the clothing site ASOS, look at how the sizes changed, from Jan 2013 to Jan 2015:

2013:

imageserver.php?id=421083;image

2015:

imageserver.php?id=421085;image

All the sizes have basically moved up a notch!

In 2013, a girl with around a 26" waist size would have been buying clothes in a size 10,

now if the same girl went shopping the size 10 on the shelf would be at least 2 inches bigger!

So yeah, that's only over two years for christ sake!

If this girl claimed she was a size 10 in 2013 and was still a size 10 in 2015, she actually has gained around 2 inches around her waist ;D

Here is how the ASOS Curve Plus size range has changed over 2 years:

2013:

imageserver.php?id=421087;image

2015:

imageserver.php?id=421089;image

These measurements have pretty much stayed the same, other than the fact they are expanding their range (Pun intended ;D )

So in answer to your question, I'm sure vanity sizing is skewing people's perception of what is "fat" and what's "normal",

I can see in the year 2017 the ladies buying/wearing a size "10" dress being even bigger than the size "10" girls of today :)

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I searched a bit:

"average body weight chart" I found this:

height-weight-chartgif-b302c4284cb35b761.gif

Then I tried "average ideal weight chart 2014" and found this:

BMI-Chart.gif

Then I changed the year "average ideal weight chart 1990"

yttfecbxu0gqphtnb_tuig.gif

Did not use much time searching so you might find something better.

Most charts is for "America" and not "Europe" where I live.

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Guest pangzi

I bought a couple pair of jeans and a few shirts in Uniqlo 5-6 years back.  They fit great and I'm wearing one pair of the jeans as I write this.  I went back in recently, tried on the same sizes and found them very baggy.  I'm a smallish, slim guy and size small used to suffice for me, but lately I've often had to seek out XS for a good fit.  I'm a full grown man, but I actually buy most of my dress shirts and jackets in the boys department!

I'd say it's annoying if I didn't see chubby girls everywhere I go these days.

It seems for awhile, most people were overweight but wanted to be normal weight.  Soon it'll be that most people are obese and desire to be merely overweight.

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I searched a bit:

"average body weight chart" I found this:

height-weight-chartgif-b302c4284cb35b761.gif

Then I tried "average ideal weight chart 2014" and found this:

BMI-Chart.gif

Then I changed the year "average ideal weight chart 1990"

yttfecbxu0gqphtnb_tuig.gif

Did not use much time searching so you might find something better.

Most charts is for "America" and not "Europe" where I live.

This goes with what's trending. Look at models and women in music videos from the early 90s. They were mostly very thin, no boobs or ass. Nowadays, there are plenty of thick to overweight women and now wanting a big butt is in. I'm not complaining.

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Guest johnjohnfred123

Asda is quite strange in particular. In their male sizes, they do elasticated fit which you would expect to add an inch or two of stretch but in reality it is much more. For example, I would normally wear a 44/46 inch waist jeans but in asda a 40 inch ''with stretch'' is too big for me. Weird.

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This is actually very interesting.  I'm glad someone did the research on it. Where did you get the first statistics,  and any way to see these as far back as 2000? I'm sure the change in fits is dramatic. The fashion industry is basically unintentionally and subliminally encouraging people to let go or gain weight by increasing sizing without people's knowledge.

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This is actually very interesting.  I'm glad someone did the research on it. Where did you get the first statistics,  and any way to see these as far back as 2000? I'm sure the change in fits is dramatic. The fashion industry is basically unintentionally and subliminally encouraging people to let go or gain weight by increasing sizing without people's knowledge.

Please, keep a lid on it  :P

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The fashion industry is basically unintentionally and subliminally encouraging people to let go or gain weight by increasing sizing without people's knowledge.

They're really just following consumer demand.  People want to be able to gain 20 pounds and still buy their old size. 

http://www.cleveland.com/style/index.ssf/2010/08/size_14_is_average_american_wo.html

This is over four years old, but still pretty interesting.  A common trend is this: a size 8 woman who gains enough weight to properly fit in size 14 won't buy said size 14 clothes unless they're labeled size 8, or maybe size 10.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mariesouthardospina/what-does-a-size-16-look-like-in-10-different-bran-17s7s#.bd07v53M9w

This article is pretty interesting too.  There's a huge range in size for any given number.  I think there's a general consensus, though, that the best number size is the largest number size, by which I mean the size 16 that fits loosest is the most favored size 16.  Also, an increasing number of clothing now contains lycra, or spandex or what have you.  A lot of pants today can handle a person's gorging more gracefully and can expand to accommodate a person's expansion much more than pure denim jeans ever could.  And yet, women are now more than ever ditching jeans for stretchy yoga pants and leggings.

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This is actually very interesting.  I'm glad someone did the research on it. Where did you get the first statistics,  and any way to see these as far back as 2000?

I looked high and low for togas measurements on the way manchine and found nothing. The older websites weren't archived properly, for some reason.

Spent an hour looking, using all different stores changed pages. Annoying.

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  • 10 months later...

I was talking with some friends recently.  We've all gone down in size recently.  According to my pant size, I've lost 4 inches off my waist in the last handful of years... but I haven't lost a pound!  Neither have my friends who are dropping in size.

A lot of clothing designers are branching into or expanding plus size lines, but there's an alternative trend now to  avoid sending consumers who have become plus sized through the psychological shock of realizing they've become plus sized.  To spare them this shock, clothing designers are pushing the higher end of normal sizes up into the plus size range without changing the number.  And this goes hand in hand with the trend of making near everything stretchy, even blue jeans.  But even this doesn't stop a lot of girls from ditching traditional pants entirely and picking up leggings.  These days, stretchy, black leggings are quickly becoming the standard uniform for young women, both chubby and thin.

Considering this trend, it's soon going to be very hard for me to find any pants that fit me well, and it's already really difficult as is.  I somehow don't really mind, though, knowing that these troubles only stem from the fact that girls everywhere continue to get plumper.  I'll suffer a little wardrobe trouble so long as girls are getting fat with greater comfort and ease.

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I was talking with some friends recently.  We've all gone down in size recently.  According to my pant size, I've lost 4 inches off my waist in the last handful of years... but I haven't lost a pound!  Neither have my friends who are dropping in size.

A lot of clothing designers are branching into or expanding plus size lines, but there's an alternative trend now to  avoid sending consumers who have become plus sized through the psychological shock of realizing they've become plus sized.  To spare them this shock, clothing designers are pushing the higher end of normal sizes up into the plus size range without changing the number.  And this goes hand in hand with the trend of making near everything stretchy, even blue jeans.  But even this doesn't stop a lot of girls from ditching traditional pants entirely and picking up leggings.  These days, stretchy, black leggings are quickly becoming the standard uniform for young women, both chubby and thin.

Considering this trend, it's soon going to be very hard for me to find any pants that fit me well, and it's already really difficult as is.  I somehow don't really mind, though, knowing that these troubles only stem from the fact that girls everywhere continue to get plumper.  I'll suffer a little wardrobe trouble so long as girls are getting fat with greater comfort and ease.

It's an interesting anecdote. It's just another way to make it even easier for people to gain weight and get huge.

Cheap fattening food

Everyone gaining weight together

The "average" size becoming bigger so that gay people don't seem as big, by comparison, compared to 20 yeas ago.

People don't have to be unfashionable, as they grow.

Easier to find bigger clothes.

Somethings gotta give, sooner or later. Will people just accept they will get a shorter life, as long as they get to keep stuffing their faces?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Somethings gotta give, sooner or later. Will people just accept they will get a shorter life, as long as they get to keep stuffing their faces?

To be honest, yes, I think they will to some extent.  However, at present, despite rising levels of obesity, life expectancy is actually at an all time high.  Some people predict that younger generations will not live as long, largely because of their weight.  Maybe they will, maybe they won't.  People are dying less from heart disease than ever before.  Diabetes, on the other hand, is a serious and growing problem.

Our culture, however, is primarily focused on curative medicine rather than preventive medicine.  Western civilizations, maybe Eastern civilizations or human beings in general too, tend to solve problems as they occur and not focus on preventing them.  Not, of course, that groups and individuals haven't worked to prevent obesity and its health complications.  People have been trying like mad for years, dieting and dieting and dieting, but getting fatter all the same.  Nevertheless, our default approach is closer along the lines of 1) develop diabetes and 2) hope medicine will cure or help manage diabetes.  Stop drinking soda and you'll do a lot to prevent diabetes... but people keep drinking soda.  Prevention, of course, is difficult, as to human beings (and to a lot of living organisms in general) sugar is awesome, and as long as sugar is available, people will consume it!

At the same time, a lot of this is just capitalism at work.  A capitalist society is likely going to be one of enlightened hedonism and it always operates on a consumption-based model.  Capitalism depends on economic growth.  A part of this growth is driven by population growth, amongst many other factors.  And part of this economic growth, funnily enough, can even be driven by individuals' growth (in size)!  We buy food, and then we buy more clothes, we buy weight loss products, fail in many cases, buy more clothes again, all while buying more and more food, and finally go out and buy medicine to treat problems caused by all the food we bought.

But after all this, being enlightened hedonists, most of us don't care.  There's a spectrum of outlooks on the matter and a growing division.  Some people want to live indefinitely, eat nothing but Soylent, and practice intermittent fasting.  But a hell of lot of people are just going to go on eating because it tastes good, feels good, and it's fun.  People LOVE food.  A lot of people, given the choice of a living to 100 thanks to a lifetime of dieting and morning jogs vs. dying a couple decades earlier but getting to eat dessert after every meal and staying in bed, will honestly choose the latter.  We live in an age of YOLO.  Enjoy your pleasures now and if you develop diabetes later in life, well, hopefully medicine will have made that an easily manageable condition.  To be honest, there's a fair chance it will.  And people just have faith that there will be solutions to problems when they occur.

It's hard to say how the future will play out.

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  • 4 months later...

I like this topic, so I thought I'd contribute another recent story.

Hanging out with two Asian American girls I know.  They don't think of themselves as particularly small and skinny, but to me and by American standards, they are quite small and skinny.  Anyhow, they both recently ordered Size 2 dresses (different dresses from different companies).  Trying them on, the first girl's dress was overlarge and and loose.  When the second girl put on her dress, it looked baggy and huge on her.  The first girl knew she had to go down a size.  "I guess I'm a Size 0?" she was surprised.  The second girl knew that the dress would only fit if she went down two sizes.  "I've never worn a 00 (double zero) before in my life!" she said.

I was chuckling all the while.  It was clear that these girls ordered dresses that were an American Size 2, and they just couldn't fill them out.  I thought to myself, "You two had better get eating, or soon you're not going to be able to find anything that fits!"

It makes me curious too.  How many skinny girls out there today are having trouble finding clothes that's small enough to fit them?

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